1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to networking systems, and, more particularly, to wireless networking systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
A modern car has complex functionality and a network architecture that supports numerous functions. It has been projected that the electronics inside a car will increase from about twenty-five percent of the car's total cost currently to about forty percent of the car's total cost in the foreseeable future. The increase of electronics in a car will place demands of better and more sophisticated network structures. The degree of networked infrastructure in a car as well as the sophistication of the network is specific to the car manufacturer, make and model. While generalizations about the networking infrastructure of a car do not hold true, a high-end car usually has more than one wired network. Typically, a high-end car has a high bandwidth network for power-train, and a relatively lower bandwidth network for body control and comfort features at a minimum. Lower-end cars tend to have fewer networked features. Costs associated with networking a car are the costs of development and testing of a network architecture, layout and planning. Due to the high degree of reliability expected from automobiles and the associated design cost, manufacturers are extremely prudent in adding new features or altering the existing network architecture.
In recent years, wireless networks have received much attention in research and development from industry and academia. While the cost of radio frequency integrated circuits has been on the decline, the technology itself has attained a level of maturity. Currently, it is possible to build much lower cost wireless nodes that may be embedded in any environment, which was not possible just a few years ago. However, wireless networks have the disadvantage of not being able to reliably communicate in environments in which obstructions impede the wireless transmission of signals. Such obstructions are common within the passenger compartment of a vehicle in the form of seats, consoles and passengers, thereby making wireless networks generally impractical within automotive passenger compartments. More generally, wireless networks suffer from numerous performance disadvantages when compared with wired networks, such as multi-path fading and interference. Hence, the reliability of a wireless network is likely to be less than that of a wired network.
What is neither disclosed nor suggested by the prior art is an arrangement for a wireless network that can reliably operate within the passenger compartment of a vehicle.